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Muslims
Under More Pressure After Philippines Blasts
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A Philippine Marines searching for evidence from the debris of the explosion Monday in Zamboanga City
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By
Kazi Mahmood, IOl Southeast Asia Correspondent
KUALA
LUMPUR, October 21 (IslamOnline) - Muslims in the Philippines are
feeling the heat after the recent spate of bombings that has ripped
through the country’s mainly Muslim dominated areas, a source in
Cota Bato city told IslamOnline Monday 21, 2002.
The
Philippines police investigating the deadly bus bombing in Quezon City
on Friday have targeted majority Muslim areas in Mindanao and Manila
in the hunt for key suspects, news agencies said.
A
man, believed to be a Muslim, is suspected of planting the bomb on the
bus and efforts to locate him were centering on three Muslim
communities in Manila, police said.
The
Abu-Sayyaf and other Muslim extremist groups were blamed for the
series of bombing in the country, but the authorities have not given
any proof yet of the claims.
Police
are still working on information that could link the bombings to the
Jemaah Islamiah (JI), a banned underground organization mainly based
in Singapore and having roots in Malaysia, Indonesia and the
Philippines according to anti-terror think tanks in the region.
Both
groups have been linked to the Al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden.
Editors
in Manila are pointing fingers directly at the JI, saying that the
defiant group is planning more attacks in response to the aftermath of
last years U.S. attack against Afghanistan.
The
Philippine Star, another English-speaking newspaper in Manila said the
Indonesia-based militant group JI remains “committed to its goal”
and “unfazed” by the recent arrests of its members across
Southeast Asia, including the Philippines.
Citing
local intelligence reports, some editors said they believed there will
be more attacks in Manila, Mindanao and most probably in Jakarta. They
singled out Muslim extremists and dismissed the possibility that other
groups than Muslim extremists were involved in the attacks.
The
Philippine intelligentsia has advised the Gloria Macapagal Arroyo
government to take enhanced steps to prevent more attacks and one of
these steps is to counter Muslim insurgency groups in Mindanao.
There
is strong belief in Manila that movements fighting for independence
such as the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Moro National
Liberation Front (MNLF) are involved with the JI and the Abu-Sayyaf.
The
local intelligentsia has also urged the authorities to set up special
units to carry out house to house checks in Muslim areas and to urge
the MILF and the MNLF to cooperate fully in these searches, which they
believe will lead to arms cache and the capture of suspects.
The
Military may also be brought back to play more important roles in
finding arms cache in areas once occupied by the MILF but are now
under the control of the army.
The
editors said the military still could not penetrate vast areas of
territory under its control, suspecting the presence of small but very
mobile and powerful pockets of resistance of the MILF within these
areas.
It
is highly probable that huge ammunition cache are hidden in these
territories and that the terrorists, under the protection of the rebel
movements are using such ammunition to perpetrate the bombings, an
editor told IslamOnline.
For
its part, the MILF denied it was behind any of the blasts, but
suggested that the authorities study the bombing patter to see whether
they are the work of rebel movements, adding that it could be the work
of anti-rebel movement or of the military itself in its bid to wage
another anti-rebellion war in Mindanao.
According
to the intelligence report cited by the Philippine Star, the Dauliah
Islamiah Raya, an Islamic emirate to be created in the region, would
comprise Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore.
Other neighboring countries would eventually be "absorbed."
Southeast Asia would be a "vital part" of Al-Qaeda’s
worldwide operations. Because of this, Australia would be placed
"under strong threat" from extremists.
To establish the Islamic state, the JI was tasked to coordinate with
other militant groups in various countries, including the MILF in the
Philippines, the Kumpulan Militan in Malaysia (KMM), and the Lashkar
Jundullah (Jihad Force) in Indonesia, among other groups.
To coordinate operations, Jemaah Islamiyah formed the "Rabitatul
Mujahedeen Alliance," which acts like a central committee
comprising leaders of various militant groups.
An alleged influential member of the Rabitatul Mujahedeen, the MILF
would provide training camps for operatives of Jemaah Islamiyah and
other groups. Jemaah Islamiyah would provide funding.
The Rabitatul Alliance allegedly facilitated the sharing of resources,
including weapons and explosives, training and funds.
Of the 21 Jemaah Islamiyah members arrested in Singapore in September,
four allegedly trained in MILF camps in Central Mindanao. When the
camps were captured in 2000 by the Philippine military, camps were set
up in Indonesia.
The
MILF denies the allegations. Abu Bakar Basyir, the arrested Islamic
leader in Indonesia, utterly rejected these allegations, saying that
they were the pure fabrication of the United States.
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